Delight in the Details

“I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well” Psalm 139:14

Each year Time magazine publishes an issue focusing on that year’s “Best Inventions.” Notable technological marvels once included a 130 mph electric roadster, a mattress that uses magnets to levitate 16 inches above the floor, a battery-powered inflatable pool-lounger, and a wall-mounted “magic” mirror. When connected to the electronic gadgets in your home, an ethereal face appears in this mirror to announce that your hot tub is ready or that someone has pulled into your driveway. I am not personally interested in the newly bred hypo-allergenic cat, but a new vending machine that actually mixes, freezes, and dispenses fresh ice cream in 45 seconds definitely has my attention!

Bill Gates, of the Microsoft Corporation, puts all of this engineering and innovation into perspective. In the book The Road Ahead, he stated: “Human DNA is like a computer program but far, far more advanced than any software ever created.” Your DNA has been there since the moment you were conceived, stipulating your hair color, your height, and the shape of your nose. It uniquely marks you and provides a clearly traceable link back through your family heritage. God has endowed the very building blocks of our genetic material with a level of sophistication and complexity that is infinitely beyond the imaginations of science’s best and brightest minds. God’s attention to detail and intriguing creativity is so powerful that it can even silence the most skeptical heart.

Millennia before the discovery of DNA, the psalmist praised God for His detailed design in our lives. Numerous psalms sing the praises of God’s handiwork in creation—magnificent oceans, star-streaked heavens, and majestic mountains. But in Psalm 139:1-24 the writer exults in the intimate work of God in creating human life. His praise is personal: “I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made.” He is aware that God’s creation is not only grand and vast, it is infinitely, wonderfully specific.

That encourages me in so many ways. It reminds me that I am not a random, accidental meeting of genetic material. God knew me, orchestrated the details of my DNA, and is carrying out His plans for my life. You are not an accident either. Like the psalmist, you were “fearfully and wonderfully made.” Your life has the full attention of the Creator of the universe, and you are precious to Him.

I am also encouraged to realize that God has given this much attention to not only you and me, but, think about it, to every single one of the six billion people on this planet. He wrote everyone’s genetic code. He knows everyone’s parents’ names, their families, their hurts, their joys, and their needs. He has a specific love for each human who walks this planet and sent Jesus to die for his or her sins, just as Christ died for yours and mine. All of us are “fearfully and wonderfully made.”

So even as we eagerly anticipate and enjoy the latest in technology, the real marvel and wonder in our lives should be reserved for the Master Creator and Designer and the One who knitted us together and gave us life. Quite honestly, no technological advance no matter how spectacular it may be can even come close to that. And even if it did, it wouldn’t care for you and love you. I’ll be forever grateful that God’s amazing design for us is not only high tech but high touch as well!

YOUR JOURNEY…

How does your awareness of the complexity of your DNA change your view of God’s intimate interest in your life?

What difference does it make in your perspective on yourself and God knowing that God’s creative power put together the very DNA that shapes who you are?

How is your perspective on the needs of the people of the world shaped by the knowledge that God intimately knows each one of them?

Read through Psalm 139:1-24. Pray back to God the prayer that David said to close the psalm.

About Joe Stowell

Joe serves as the President of Cornerstone University in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Cornerstone supports his web ministry, Strength for the Journey, which features daily devotionals, video devotionals, and weekly messages with downloadable study guides.

Joe and his wife, Martie, are the parents of three adult children and ten grandchildren.